At its April 21 regular board meeting, the Conroe ISD board of trustees addressed the district bus fleet’s seat belt status due to Senate Bill 546, which requires district buses to be equipped with three-point seat belts. Currently, more than half of CISD buses do not meet the new safety requirements, and officials said the district does not have the funds available to replace them.
The gist
A second requirement of the bill is for districts to report by May which buses do or do not meet the new safety standards, and the cost of bringing them up to date. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chris McCord delivered the breakdown of the district’s current bus fleet, which is made up of 599 buses.
Currently, 53%, or 320, of CISD’s buses do not meet the new three-point seat belt safety requirements. McCord said that the district would not have been able to reach that number, however, without the passing of bond 2023, which allowed CISD to purchase 128 buses with three-point seat belts.
McCord said he and his team were able to break down the costs to either buy or retrofit the 320 buses that don’t have three-point seat belts.
- Retrofitting 320 buses with three-point seat belts: $10.2 million
- Buying 320 new buses with three-point seat belts: $54.09 million
- Retrofitting new buses from 2013, while also replacing 2012 or older buses: $40.8 million
The bottom line
Under the recommendation of McCord and Superintendent David Vinson, CISD currently does not have the finances available in the budget to address these issues. Officials said the district plans on addressing this issue further down the line.
“At this point in time, it’s just not financially prudent for us to move forward towards any of these solutions,” Vinson said. “One of the things we’re going to look forward to, if we ever get the time, is a master facilities plan that includes transportation and those kinds of things.”